Newly married trans activist Luckie Alexander on the “All Black Lives Matter” march, racial injustice and providing a platform for transmen to be their own story tellers.
BY MARK ARIEL | PHOTO BY DUSTI CUNNINGHAM
“I was 8 years old when I found out I wasn’t like my little brothers,” reveals trans activist Luckie Alexander in an interview with THE FIGHT.
“I was playing on the school yard one day and ask a couple of boys if I could play with them. The reply would spin my entire world on it’s head ‘you can’t play with us you’re a girl!’ I was upset the rest of the day, I was on my way home thinking ‘I’m telling my mom!’ and I get home thoroughly upset, throwing my backpack and stormed to mom and told her what happened. I just knew my mom was going to fix those boys, I was disrespected! She turns to me and says ‘well you are a girl.’”
“Everything started to fall apart, my grades started failing, I became suicidal as I started to go through puberty. I got into trouble and got into fights a lot. I ended up in a court correctional school and started to focus back in on school work. This got the attention of the Dean because my grades were stellar and he felt like I truly didn’t belong there. He got me into a program that would allow me to accomplish a high school diploma while attaining my 1st Associates Degree. I continued to use school to cope because it was the place where I could be me. It wasn’t till I was about 20 when I found language around being trans, up until then I identified as a stud, it was as close as I thought I could get to what I was feeling inside. I started to do research but never saw myself in the people I was coming across—they were all white guys. I thought maybe black people didn’t transition but then in 2010 I met a black trans man for the first time at a “Brown Boi Project Leadership Retreat” and it was like I was seeing a reflection. Soon as I got home I started calling my insurance company to find out if Testosterone was covered and in 2 weeks was on T.”
In March of 2018, on “Trans Day of Visibility,” Alexander launched “Invisible Men.”
“It started as a platform for transmen to be their own story tellers. Transmen didn’t have any resources in the way of competent medical, mental health care or emotional support resources. This was due to lack of visibility in so many different aspects. I know that we can’t ask for help if no one knows there is a problem. So I decided to show the world we exist by creating a platform and asking folks to show up in the world the way they want to be seen and respected. This created some visibility around our very existence and with the visibility we have managed to highlight the lack of resources for transmasculine individuals.”
More recently Alexander became involved with B.L.A.C. (Black LGBTQ Activists for Change)—an organization formed in response to CSW’s attempt to organize a Black Lives Matter march this past June—without first addressing past racial transgressions with the black queer community.
The subsequent All Black Lives Matter March took place last month—drawing tens of thousands of people—filling the streets of Hollywood and West Hollywood—in a march denouncing racial injustice and supporting LGBTQ rights.
“I am the artist who designed the All Black Lives Matter mural on Hollywood Blvd,” reveals Alexander.
“It came out of a collaboration B.L.A.C., Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s team, and Rick and his team at Trailer Park Group… I presented the teams with the current design. The design came from watching as my community was left out of the conversation especially when it relates to transmen. It represents every part of the black community regardless of how you identify…
It provided the message we were trying to convey, that all black lives matter regardless of the intersection we may fall in…”
The All Black Lives Matter mural also played a part in Alexander’s marriage which took place last month. “I proposed last year and she said YES! We were planning to get married in May of 2020 and then Covid happened and then George Floyd and Tony McDade happened… I designed the All Black Lives Matter mural and we decided before it is removed we would move our wedding up almost a year to capture this mural and moment—as part of our personal history. It means so much to the both of us.”
